You can bet the ranch they have a tape of the conversation. 100% sure. If it cooberated their story they would risk the backlash and release it. Almost all taped conversations are legal as long as one party is aware of it.
My point wasn’t really about whether or not there is a tape of the conversation, though I suspect there isn’t, since it was 5:45 in the morning and the producer probably didn’t take the time to get a recording system set up, and because I don’t think even ABC would be stupid enough to lie to the lawyer about a non-existent tape that they would then admit did actually exist. My point was that the mother sounds like she’s got something to hide, given the way that she lawyered up right away and had her attorney make an inquiry about whether a tape existed before she made her statement saying that she didn’t say what the producer said she did.